When do GTA 6 reviews come out? What has been reported, and what is still a guess

Updated 31 October: since this went up, insider NateTheHate reported on 26 October that review codes are going out, and he and Insider Gaming both put the embargo on 18 November. Rockstar still hasn't confirmed it. The latest is here.

Grand Theft Auto 6 unlocks on 19 November. Rockstar hasn't announced when reviews can go up, and it's not the sort of company that does. So this is what's been reported, who said it, and how it lines up with what Rockstar's done before.

The latest report: copies before the end of October

Insider Gaming reported that a review embargo will lift before the release date, then deleted the story. The insider NateTheHate, who's got a good record on Rockstar dates, followed up to say copies would go out before the end of October. Notebookcheck worked out that'd give reviewers three weeks or more with the game.

Neither has been confirmed by Rockstar or Take-Two. A deleted article is a weak source, and NateTheHate's claim reaches us secondhand. That's why this page is labelled Rumour.

The earlier report: no copies at all

In May, the Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe said the opposite: nobody would be getting a key, and reviewers would play at some kind of controlled review event instead. That was always going to be hard for a game this size. You can't properly review it in a weekend in a hotel conference room.

Both reports could be partly true. Sending copies out early with tight conditions attached, like a console tied to a single account, is a common compromise for games with a leak problem.

And GTA 6 has a leak problem

It's had one for four years. Through August and October a leaker posting as cyberleek has been putting out footage from a development build, including about twenty-five minutes of it reported on 8 October. So Rockstar's worry about review copies is a real one. Every week a copy exists outside the building is a week it can escape.

Rockstar's last two launches gave critics one day

• GTA 5. Reviews went up on 16 September 2013. The game came out on 17 September. One day.
• Red Dead Redemption 2. Reviews went up on 25 October 2018, for a 26 October release. One day again.

Both times, Rockstar gave critics the game weeks early. It's never let them publish more than a day ahead. The likeliest outcome is the same pattern again: copies in late October or early November, and an embargo on 18 November, the day before launch. That's our own inference from the pattern. Nobody's reported it.

We still don't know the embargo date, whether reviewers get retail-equivalent copies or a supervised build, or whether technical outlets like Digital Foundry get the same date as critics. We'll update this page when Rockstar or a reviewing outlet confirms any of it.

What a late embargo means if you haven't decided

If you've already pre-ordered, a review isn't going to change your mind. If you're on the fence between standard and Ultimate, or about the base PS5 versus a Pro, reviews and technical breakdowns are where you'll find out how it actually runs. An embargo a day out means that information lands with very little time to act on it before preloading closes.

It also means spoilers. Once copies are out, footage follows. If you want to go in clean, mute the words on social media now, and don't leave it to the week of release.